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Cornel
West communicates to a vast variety of publics keeping alive the legacy of
Martin Luther King. Today Dr. Cornel West has become the most worthy black public spokesman to inherit Martin Luther King’s
mantel.

Eugene Stovall

Oakland, California October 23, 2014

It was early morning in Ferguson,
Missouri, just after midnight. Dr. Cornel
West, Carl Dix joined Ferguson’s clergy and community activists in the protest
known as #FergusonOctober and #MoralMonday. After a weekend when thousands
of people participated in rallies and protests, Ferguson’s community activists
decided that further demonstrations were needed to draw attention to the murder
of the unarmed teenager, Michael Brown, and the numerous other black men, women
and children being killed by white police on a daily basis. Demonstrations were
planned for Ferguson and St. Louis. The protests were also meant to draw
attention to systemic racial profiling under ‘stop and frisk’ laws, mass incarcerations and police brutality. Several
hours into the protest, Cornel West was arrested and charged with assault on a
police officer.

Dr. Cornel West embraces non-violent activism
to dramatize the need for a renaissance in black intellectualism. But not the
moribund, Afrocentric intellectualism that feeds on mumbo jumbo and the
interpretation of primitive totems. West believes the condition of black people
can be attributed to underdevelopment of their mental capacity and their
willingness to do anything for a ‘buck.’ Without an adequate education or sense
of history, black people are confused about their true place in society. Because
they don’t know anything, black people fall for everything the media spews out
over its propaganda, advertising and entertainment channels. Cornel West says
that it is not enough to know black history, we must make black history. Making
black history is the process of black people writing their history instead of
having it fed to them by white people bent on white supremacy. Dr. Cornel West and
the other committed blacks were writing black history when they were arrested in
Ferguson, Missouri.

“Writing our own history will help us to identify
the lies being propagated by the media,” West says. So he is more than willing
to endure the ‘blowback’ he receives from ‘politically correct’ Negro
intellectuals and white liberals. Dr. West does not seem interested in
Democratic party majorities or electing Democratic party candidates. Cornel
West is concerned with black issues including economic deprivation, educational
inequality and mass incarceration. He urges black people to reject the
temptation to embrace ‘Jim Crow’ democratic politics with its flawed assimilationist
appeals. Self-reliance, in its various forms, is the way Dr. West sees the
black community overcoming unemployment and homelessness. The Democratic Party
is uninterested in black issues and corrupts black leaders and politicians who are.

In an address at St. Sabina Catholic Church
in Chicago, Dr. West discussed the importance of loving black people even if
others ___ the powerful, the rich and the famous ____ make you feel ashamed for
doing so. West said that integrity is simply facing your oppression with the
dignity of someone whose is not for sale and is not a government ‘snitch.’

Cornel West has a passion to communicate
to a vast variety of publics in order to keep alive the legacy of Martin Luther
King. West embraces King’s legacy of telling the truth and bearing witness to
love and justice as few others have. Those
who stand with Dr. West speak for poor, black and brown people. They are on the
right side of history. They are telling the world that racial tyranny will not
prevail.

Others have joined Cornel West’s struggle for
social justice.

Kamala Harris
California State Attorney General

When
Kamala Harris took office, California homeowners were reeling from the effects
of the subprime mortgage crisis. Harris represented California in the National
Mortgage Settlement against five banks: Ally, Wells Fargo, Bank of America,
CitiBank and Chase. To the surprise of other state representatives as well as
the bank representatives themselves, Harris walked out the talks when she found
the banks dictating their terms of the settlement. California’s attorney general remained aloof from
allies and angered attorney generals in other states. Liberal groups were
urging Harris to wring more concessions from the banks. As a close ally of
Barack Obama, administration officials tried
to pressure Harris to return to the negotiating table and accept the banks’
offer.

Kamala
Harris only rejoined the talks when the banks accepted $12 billion in debt
reduction for the state's homeowners and a $26 billion repayment plan, overall.
In addition, Harris forced the banks to fund state housing counseling services,
legal help for struggling homeowners and debt forgiveness for 23,000 homeowners. Under Kamala Harris, California received by far the
largest share of the $26 billion benefit package funded by the banks.

Maxine Waters
Congressman, Los Angeles

On
March 16, 1998, Congresswoman Maxine Waters testified before the House
Intelligence Commitee on CIA involvement in drug trafficking. The committee
chairman, Porter Goss stoutly resisted the full investigation of the CIA-crack
connection that Waters pressed him for. In retaliation, Goss brought charges
against Maxine Waters for violations of House ethics rules stemming from her
advocacy for Black banks.

Maxine
Waters has advocated black issues for the 38 years that she has served in
Congress. During her tenure, Congresswoman Waters has waged
an unrelenting war on drugs with the U.S. government. Concerned with those who profited
from the trade, such as Ronald Reagan and his criminal justice, law and order
cronies who used their drug profits to overthrow governments, build campaign
war chests and line their own pockets. Reagan, Bush, North and Clinton flooded
urban America with the government’s the special brand of crack-cocaine that was
developed in South Central Los Angeles, the heart of Maxine’s district.

“Former President George Bush, while
serving as vice president in the Ronald Reagan administration in 1981-89,
presided over a Nicaraguan Contra cabal that was responsible for flooding the
streets of Los Angeles’ South Central district with crack cocaine and fueling a
murderous cycle of gang violence,” Jeffrey Steinberg wrote in the Sept. 13,
1996 issue of Executive Intelligence Review drawing his information from a
series of articles by Gary Webb published in the San Jose Mercury News.

Maxine Waters was so concerned about
the government’s drug business that she invited Gary Webb to Washington to
testify. “Mercury reporter Gary Webb provided a detailed account of how the
Nicaraguan Democratic Forces (FDN, the Contras) financed their 1980s war
against the Sandinista regime in Managua, through a cocaine pipeline that went
from Colombia, to the San Francisco Bay Area, to the streets of Los Angeles,
placing crack cocaine and guns into the hands of the Crips and the Bloods,” the
Steinberg article declares. For his report, Gary Webb was fired from the San
Jose Mercury newspaper.

Cynthia McKinney. Former Congressman Atlanta

Six term Congressman Cynthia
McKinney represented Atlanta’s Sixth Congressional District but was defeated in
2002.

McKinney's loss was a
rejection by voters in both parties of her controversial profile, which
included support for Arab causes and a suggestion that Bush knew in advance of
the Sept. 11 attacks. An inflammatory remark by her father State Rep. Billy
McKinney on an Atlanta TV broadcast may have been the final blow to her
campaign.

After her 2002 loss, McKinney traveled and
gave speeches. She served as a Commissioner on The Citizens’ Commission on
9-11. On October 26, 2004, McKinney was among those who signed the 9-11 Truth
Movement statement. This statement called for investigations into those aspects
of the 9/11 events, including how ordinary jet gasoline could burn through
steel and concrete.

McKinney was re-elected to the House in
November 2004. Back in Congress, she advocated unsealing records pertaining to
the CIA's role in the assassination of Martin Luther King, and the murder of
Tupac Shakur. A continual critic of the Bush Administration, Cynthia McKinney
supported anti-war legislation and introduced articles of impeachment against
President Bush, Vice President Dick Cheney and Secretary of State Condoleezza
Rice.

On March 29, 2006, the Capitol Police
prevented Cynthia McKinney from entering Congress. The incident drew national
attention. None of the Demoncratic Party caucus nor Black Congressional Caucus
lent their support. The incident caused McKinney to lose re-election. Cynthia
McKinney left the Democratic Party in September 2007.

Corey Booker
US Senator New Jersey

Had Corey Booker and his Wall Street
cronies had their way, the poor citizens of Newark, New Jersey would have loss
access to water like in Detroit 27,000 households have been disconnected from
water. When he ran for mayor, Corey Booker promised Newark’s voters that his
Wall Street friends would invest in Newark. But as mayor, Corey Booker was a
disappointment. Booker attempted to privatize the city’s water supply to
do what they did in Detroit. Booker’s administration squandered a $100 million
gift from Facebook CEO Mark Zuckerberg. Booker’s constituents complained
that he was more available for television appearances than he was for meetings
with Newark’s citizens. Many voted to send Booker to the Senate because
they wanted him out of Newark’s mayor’s office.

As a US Senator Cory Booker has introduced
legislation to strip several professional sports leagues, including the NFL, of
their tax-exempt status. Booker’s Securing Assistance for Victim Empowerment
(SAVE) Act, seeks to raise $100 million over 10 years for domestic violence
assistance programs. Attempting to take advantage of the NFL's multiple
high-profile domestic violence cases involving players, Booker is attempting to
court Women’s Rights activists.

The NFL gained tax-exempt status as
a nonprofit in 1944. Booker’s bill will also affect the U.S. Tennis
Association, NHL and the Professional Golf Association. Newly elected,
Corey Booker is already identifying his political constituency as Women’s
Rights advocates

Ras Baraka,
Mayor, Newark New Jersey

There is a difference between
Newark’s newly elected mayor Ras Baraka and previous mayor, Corey Booker. Governor
Christie has commented that Mayor Baraka is far more difficult to handle than
Booker was. Meeting with the people of Newark ___ something Booker
refused to do ____ Baraka is attempting to get citizens to change Newark for
the better. Baraka defeated an opponent who spent millions of dollars
because of his grass-roots connection to the city. Baraka was a schoolteacher,
vice principal, principal, and city councilor before becoming mayor.
Baraka’s campaign mottos were meant to embody self-empowerment and self-reliance.
These are the same virtues advocated by Dr. Cornel West.